wears the trousers magazine

words in edgeways with manda rin

I was never actively not a Bis fan, they just seemed to somehow bypass my musical youth altogether, but some other Wears The Trousers writers are huge aficionados of the cartoonish Glaswegian punk-pop trio so I couldn’t resist stealing a few on-the-fly moments with their erstwhile frontwoman Manda Rin in between soundchecks for her headlining set at Ladyfest Manchester. I therefore humbly apologise in advance if this isn’t the most insightful interview for those in the know.

Manda may have been in The Biz for 14 years but there’s not a trace of prima donna about her. She was sweet, funny, self-effacing and pretty much wholesale adorable and it’s easy to see how she has engendered so much fan-love over the years. She even inspired the name of the label on which her debut solo album My DNA was released back in September, This Is Fake DIY (an offshoot of the great music website of the same name, lifted from a 1996 Bis EP). Moving further than ever into gleeful electro pop, My DNA draws on several current musical influences yet stands defiantly on its own lo-fi legs as a work of absolute honesty and surprising substance. It’s tempting to view it purely as an attempt to jump on the electro pop bandwagon currently surfed by people like The Ting Tings and CSS – and some reviewers have – but to do so fails to acknowledge the obvious influence of bands like Bis on this new crop of shouty women and excitable synths. Manda is no copyist; this sort of thing just comes naturally to her. You could say it’s in her DNA.

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Lovely to meet you Manda! How are you?

Tired! I just came down from Glasgow this morning. I was up at half five! I hope I can do alright [laughs].

So is this your first Ladyfest?

No, I’ve done two actually. With Bis, I did one in Glasgow a while ago when The Gossip actually supported us, strangely enough. And I was in another band called Kitchen and we did one in Glasgow as well.

And what are your memories of those?

Oh, it was absolutely fantastic! You feel like everyone is just working for the same thing and there’s an excitement. Ever since I walked in at soundcheck today there’s been a buzz that I haven’t felt in a long time. So it’s lovely. Everyone’s on the same wavelength and there’s no pressure, no stresses, no corporate people. It’s just all enthusiasm and it’s brilliant.

How did you get involved in Ladyfest Manchester?

They got in touch with me by email and straight away I was like, yes, if you can help us jump on a train for it then absolutely! [laughs] And I’ve brought my three band members with me. I’ve got two guitarists and a bassist [she later introduces them as James, David and Stuart, aka The Rinettes] and some backing tracks on a laptop, and it’s great fun because we’re all friends. So it’s just like travelling around with your buddies and it’s the best way a band should be really, it’s great.

Tell us a bit about making your solo album.

It’s been around for a while now. When Bis ended and Data Panik [the short-lived 2005 reincarnation of Bis] ended I wasn’t ready to stop making music. I couldn’t stop at all, and I had some ideas. I wanted to do some stuff and, you know, I only had so much material to write with at home, equipment wise, so whatever I had I took into Steven and John from Bis’s studio in Glasgow. I just went in at nights when they weren’t using it and put what I’d done on Myspace…and the response was absolutely fantastic! They had silly working titles but everyone was really supportive. Okay, the production was pretty shoddy but it was the first thing I’d done on my own and I just thought, well, I don’t have to answer to anybody. It doesn’t have to chart. It doesn’t have to do anything. As long as I was enjoying it and having fun, that was what I was going to do.

So I managed to do a few more songs, got more response, more excitement, and then one night I went back in and Steven had been playing around with one of the songs, production wise, and it sounded so bloody good that I was like, I cannot go back to the versions I’d done after hearing his. I mean, that’s his talent and that’s what he’s good at and I’m not too, you know, up myself to think, oh I can’t take his help. So I did take his help and he produced the whole album in the end, and I was just so excited to have a solo album! [laughs] It’s so exciting! [bounces]

Has it gone down really well with Bis fans?

Yeah, it’s a shame it’s not really got a lot of recognition. Not many people seem to know about it, in a way. I mean, I’m on a tiny label and there was a lot of press at the beginning because there was a company in Scotland who really wanted to work on it but the label wouldn’t pay for them for the second single so it’s really died down. So I don’t know if many people know about it or anything, but as I say, at the end of the day I got an album out in the shops. But it’s stupidly expensive, which I’m annoyed about, and won’t help to sell many.

How much is it going for?

Someone told me they saw it in the shop for 15 quid! I mean, I would sell it for a tenner, that’s all I want. And in America, where it’s just come out, 10 dollars, which I think is fantastic.

Are you planning to go over there?

I’d love to but I don’t really know if I can afford it. Because it’s a grand a visa, and there’s four of us, you know. And you’ve got to fly, got to stay in hotels. I mean, I don’t ask for much but still…we’ll play it by ear.

Your new single ‘Guilty Pleasure’ comes out on Monday [i.e. it's out now!]. So, obvious question, what’s your guilty pleasure?

I have a very strange one – I’m so addicted to menus!

Ohhhkay. I hear you’ve been running a remix competition for it. How’s the judging going?

I’ve heard that a bunch of folk entered but I’ve yet to hear the entries! Looking forward to hearing them actually. 

You’ve said already that you’re looking forward to seeing Miss The Occupier later. Who else are you excited about?

I’m disappointed I’ll miss The Slits tomorrow. I’m going home in the morning. I’ve actually played with Ari Up before in the past with my band Kitchen, and some people are just like [holds hands up reverentially] aaaaaah! [laughs]. But apart from her and Miss The Occupier I don’t really know any of the other bands. They sound amazing when I’ve seen the description so hopefully I’ll get to catch a few more briefly.

And what have you go in store for us?

Well, I was asked to do a cover version of a song that means a lot to me for the BBC Radio Scotland session I’m doing on Monday [Vic Galloway show, November 17th from 8pm] and I decided to do ‘Be My Baby’ by The Ronettes and it worked out so well that I’m playing it at Ladyfest.

Ooh! Will it be a future B-side maybe?

Maybe I’ll end up recording it just for fun! I heard an ad for Jason Donovan’s new album and he’s covered it too! [laughs]

Oh dear. I might give that one a miss. What’s all this about you filming an episode of ‘Never Mind The Buzzcocks’ last month? You were in the line up segment?

It was an absolutely fantastic experience. Sadly it doesn’t look like it’ll get aired for about 10 weeks due to the Russell Brand stuff…he was on that show. But as long as it gets shown at all I’ll be happy!

I bet they showed the panel that famous ‘Top Of The Pops’ clip of you singing ‘Kandy Pop’ with the Bis boys. Are you ever going to play together again?

I don’t think so. The guys are just not that bothered by it anymore. Steven’s now got a baby on the way, and they’re both married. I think they’ve just had their fill of stuff and they’re just going to chill for a bit. But I’m not ready! [laughs] We’re still all really good friends and if someone offered us a stupid amount of money to play in Glasgow I’m sure they’d say yes, so, we’ll see. I loved those reunion shows we played last year. I think it was Hogmanay last year that we played for the last time, and it was really good, I really did enjoy it. It was weird playing the old songs and trying to be as energetic and screechy as I used to be. It’s still fun. I do love it, I really really do, but you can’t keep doing it forever. 

Do you still listen to that kind of music yourself or have your tastes moved on?

They have actually because the only Bis album I would ever go back and listen to now would be the third album, Return To Central, which is the more…[pulls face] mature album. That sounds a little wanky to say but it’s the one I can listen to that’s quite dark and emotional and I can remember what we were thinking when we wrote that, whereas our mentality and what we were thinking when we were 18, that feels like a long time ago. It’s exciting to think that we did that and it means a lot to other people, and I still get emails from people saying I can’t believe you were around in my school years, I don’t know how I would have got through it without you…and it’s amazing. It’s lovely to think that you meant that much to someone. So it’s worth it!

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Alan Pedder and Chris Catchpole

‘Guilty Pleasure’

‘DNA’